JEFFERSON CITY - Governor Mike Parson halted Medicaid expansion Thursday, and now the battle for it could go to the courts.
Missouri voters approved Amendment 2 in August, which added Medicaid expansion to the state Constitution. Under the expansion, the federal government would cover 90% of the costs and the state would cover the other 10%.
However, the Missouri House and Senate voted down funding for Medicaid expansion in the 2022 budget. Gov. Parson then took the final step Thursday morning and sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services withdrawing plans to fund it.
Medicaid expansion is set to start July 1, but University of Missouri law professor Thomas Bennett said that date could be up in the air with possible lawsuits.
Long-term care providers that have been clamoring for updated guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to.
Randy Gerlach is president and CEO of Schofield Care, which operates a 120-bed nursing home in Kenmore.
The Schofield Residence is rated four stars by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, meaning it’s considered above average. Yet it doesn’t quite meet the new safe staffing bill’s mandate of 3.5 care hours per resident per day.
“Are they working smarter, not harder? And if they are, why are we going to penalize them, to add cost when they re already doing a very good job?” Gerlach said.
Like nursing home operators, advocates for nursing home residents also worry the bill won’t actually improve care, but for much different reasons. They say 3.5 hours isn’t enough.
A few weeks back, when the Biden Administration outlined its much-anticipated American Families Plan, it was notable that the president did not include pharmaceutical price reforms in the proposal. At the time, I argued that even though House Democrats would certainly try to insert their drug legislation (H.R. 3) into the reconciliation package, Biden’s decision […]